Road transport operators have agreed to reduce public transport fares by 10 percent, beginning tomorrow May 17, 2023.
This was announced in a joint press statement signed and released by the General Secretaries of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU of TUC) and the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC), Godfred Abulbire and Emmanuel Ohene Yeboah respectively.
“In line with the Administrative Arrangement on the Public Transport Fares, the Road Transport Operators have reduced public transport fares by 10 percent to accommodate for the reductions in the prices of petroleum products observed over the period,” the joint statement said.
The statement indicated that the new fares, which will take effect tomorrow, will cover shared taxis, intra-city (tro-tro), intercity (long distance) and haulage.
It, therefore, directed all commercial transport operators to comply with the new fares, and post same at their loading terminals. It also requested all operators, commuters and the general public to cooperate for the successful implementation of the new fares.
It further gave the assurance to all transport operators and Ghanaians to work in the best of their interest.
Fallen fuel prices
In a related development, the Institute for Energy Security (IES) has announced that prices of petrol, diesel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) are expected to fall marginally again at the pumps from today for the next 14 days.
According to the IES, this is on the back of a reduction in prices of finished products on the world market as well as the stability of the Cedi.
“The Institute for Energy Security (IES) monitoring of prices over the past two weeks on the Global Standard & Poor (S&P) Platts platform indicate the prices of gasoline [petrol], gasoil [diesel], and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) decreased by 8.40%, 9.98%, and 13.43% respectively. The Ghana cedi also gained 0.17% against the US greenback currency,” IES noted in a statement.
It indicated that following the “drop in prices of petroleum products on the international market, coupled with the strong performance of the Ghana Cedi, domestic prices for all petroleum products are projected to fall”.
Local fuel performance
Gasoil, Gasoline and LPG are expected to sell at ¢12.30, ¢12.15 and ¢12.12 respectively. According to the IEA, the first pricing window for May 2023 saw domestic prices of petrol, diesel and LPG fall.
The prices declined at an average of ¢0.50 for petrol and diesel, whilst LPG went down by ¢0.90.
Its monitoring of various Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) during the pricing window under review found the national average price per litre for petrol at ¢12.85, diesel at ¢12.80 and LPG at ¢13.46 per kilogram.
The price of Brent crude reached new weekly lowers over the period. The current OPEC+ production restrictions appear to have failed to keep Brent crude prices higher, as prices retested their March 2023 lows last week.
As a result, IES said price of Brent crude traded at an average price of $76.57 per barrel the past two weeks and closed the window at $78.06 per barrel
